Eufemia Aguilar has lived in her two-bedroom apartment on North Sanborn Road in Salinas for about 10 years. A garlic peeler at Christopher Ranch, she rises at 2:30 a.m. every day, packs her lunch and heads to work, leaving her 20-year-old son and 5-year-old grandson to sleep.
There are lots of problems inside her apartment — peeling linoleum, a stove that only sort-of works, mold from the slow drip-drip-drip of her upstairs neighbor’s shower. But Aguilar likes to focus on the positive.
However, her landlords have increased her rent by 30%, and then, a few weeks ago, they served Aguilar and some of her neighbors with a 60-day notice to vacate their apartments. They need to be out by Jan. 1.